Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Updates

My Dad is in the hospital again. Broken hip. Probably more but waiting on test results. Poor guy, it has been a terrible year for him. Hard to believe the difference once year can make.

Thank you to someone special who made a donation for Biene's Bones as a result of my blog. You have a kind heart.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Marge's Birthday

We celebrated Marge's birthday today even though it is not until Tuesday - in our family everyone's birthday is on Saturday, LOL. She will be turning 88. On the way home from mom's condo, Marge made a remark where she hesitated when referring to herself as "elderly". I told her she had two more years until she had to consider herself elderly!

My mom always sets a beautiful table - even for a simple family dinner. Tonight she fixed a meat loaf, a mushrrom gravy, maskeh potatoes, risotto (because Jerry doesn't eat potatoes), baked brocolli & asparagus, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in a nice marinade, and cornbread & biscuits. It was a very quiet table because we were all hungry AND it was SOOOOO good!

Photo of hubby with his mom.

After dinner we went into the living room where Marge opened her gifts AND we watched the Razorbacks get stomped by "some other southern team" :)

I believe she will like these "TV Ears" since she lives in an apartment and has hearing loss.

Due to low vision (macular degeneration) she is a little afraid of candles so this infuser seems like a good alternative.

She'll read the cards under her machine tonight.

Birthday cake! Mom made a yellow butter cake with lemon filling and white frosting. We also had ice cream and coffee.
Marge is very lucky as I don't believe that many people get to live to 88; plus, she is a healthy.

Biene's Bones

Doesn't looking at that broken bone just give you chills? This poor little rat terrier was adopted from the SPCA by someone I know from a social networking site (Rat-Terrier.com). She somehow escaped from the facility and was hit by a car. They put a cast on her leg and the adoptee was told she had a minor fracture. Ah, wrong.

Here's a photo of her shortly after adoption and before being diagnosed as having a serious break requiring pins and plates. The adoptee is a college student, with some family support, who was devistated to learn the correct surgery would near $3,000; however, she was bonded and knew if she took the dog back she would be destroyed. So she up a blog at Biene's Bones to try to raise money toward her surgery and report on her progress.

Even though she couldn't afford the expensive surgery, she went ahead and did it for the sake of the dog. Once healed Biene should be able to run and play like a normal rat terrier puppy!

If anyone reading this can afford and is it interested in donating ANTHING toward the surgery, please go to the site Biene's Bones (another blogspot account) where there are instructions for two types of donations. Either a paypal directly to the owner or new instructions on how to pay the vet directly.
So far she has raised $469!! There is a toteboard on the site to help keep track of the donations raised. I'm putting my money where my mouth is and going there now.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Way Back Wednesday

My wierd Aunt Hellen. Yes, that is how her named is spelled ;) She's my mom's baby sister & #11 out of 11.


She really was a cutie pie! Oh, and any family members reading this, you could be next ;)

Monday, September 21, 2009

The Bucs Have A New Cheerleader

And her name is Daisey!

I got her this little outfit in the infant section at Target.

The pompoms are from the Dollar Tree



Sunday, September 20, 2009

Green Thumb Sunday

I haven't been in my garden much lately so there were a few surprizes for me when I went out there today :)

My Crinim Lily pup is doing very well. When I moved the mother plant a while ago and this little fella fell off of the main stalk. I planted it under the shade of the lime tree. The first year it wasn't too sure it wanted to survive but now it is growing enough to where I need to consider a long-term spot om the garden (it gets BIG).

Remember this post? This is the same bromeliad and it is blooming! I took another shot of the bloom from a different direction and an update of it's pup. I guess I should have figured out that it was going to bloom because of the emergence of a pup.



Remember my ghost orchid? The one that has no leaves and blooms directly on the roots?
Don't get too excited, it's not blooming but boy has it grown this year! It was a (legal) seedling when I bought it a couple years ago and it should be 3 - 5 years old before it blooms if I recall. I stress legal because it is a protected plant. It does have some strange thing hanging from the center that made me wonder if it was a tiny bloom I missed.....probably just a failed root. I would be very disappointed to learn I missed it's first bloom :(

My staghorn fern had only two leaflets when I bought it. It was growing quite thick but now, with the summer rains and a new spot in the yard, it is so happy it is growing a long leaf.

One of the broms from the Green Thumb Festival, I believe.


Pool garden - out of control AGAIN. Not safe to walk around the pool.

ANd the grand finale.......I was trimming vines last weekend and was ambushed by bees. I forgot all about the trimmers that I abandoned as I ran from the bees. They were still hanging on the vine. LOL

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Woo Pig Sooie!!

Dad and I "watched" the game together on the phone for a while tonight. Made me feel better knowing he was feeling well enough to find and watch the game :)

Sounds Like POssible Good News

Well my Dad came back from the orthopedic without any type of cast so I believe that is good news.

I have to confess that once again, I have mislaid the cable thingy that connects to my camera to get the photos off. So no photo posts,

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Playing Catch Up

Hello members of the blogosphere. Long time, no see.

I got bad news concerning my Dad yesterday. Seems Monday night he took a fall and his leg and/or ankle is broken. He sees an orthopedic tomorrow. Poor guy just can't catch a break this year. My plan is to go see him mid October for his birthday. I've been to Arkansas three times in 2009 so far and none of them were planned or for a fun visit. I just can't believe that all this is happening to him.

I've finally given in to the texting thing. I fought it for years but I have friends and family members that text me and since I didn't have text on my plan, it was costly. So, not only have I added texting to my wireless plan, I also needed a new phone so I got one with a keyboard.

This is my "old" phone. I liked the slider operation and it's features but it had a bad habit - if I turned it off then the first call after it was turned back on would not go through for me. It would ring on the other end but all I heard was dead air. Drove my friends and family crazy until I got smart and just never turned it off.

Introducing my new phone! I feel as though I am stepping up in the technological world because this one has a flip out keyboard. Wouldn't you know it? I added 1,000 texts to my plan and got a new easy-text phone and now I am not getting them. LOL


Friday, September 4, 2009

Quiche Factory

Last Thursday I made 6 quiches in one night - 4 for work and 2 for home. My new stove worked beautifully! Although, it is no longer my shiny new stove, LOL.

After watching Julie & Julia, I took the restaurant/school approach and prepared all my ingredients so that the last step was just assembling the pies. Here you see rotisserie chicken, breakfast sausage, sauteed red & green bell peppers, chopped ham, and very crisp bacon (cooked in microwave between sheets of paper towels).

Eventually I had to chop onions. I have such a hard time with onion that I knew if I was going to get the work done I would need some help. Since there was no one around to talk into doing it for me, I donned some snorkel gear and it was BIG help.

Muchroom chopping is much better than onions; however, when sweating these they shrunk down to about 1/3 of their original size. I always sweat the vegtables to keep them from making the quiches watery.

Sweating the mean onions :)

Processing the Swiss cheese. My husband calls the Cuisinart my $200 cheese grader.

These are the 4 I made for work. Upper left is ham & mushroom, upper right is chicken & brocolli, lower left is my favorite sausage and peppers, and lower right is the traditional Lorraine with bacon & onion.

The egg, cream, and seasoning mixture that you pour into each pie after the savory ingredients and the cheese.

Ready to pour the egg mixture. I used Swiss, cheddar, and motzerella cheeses.

Whoops!

All 6 in the oven at once! Sorry, the finished photos didn't download. I will try again later (if they are still on my camera)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Dinner With My Cuzzie

Last night we had birthday dinner at local Mexican restaurant for Cousin Erica. Sorry, no photos. It was me, my Mom, Cousin Lea (Erica's mom), Erica (the birthday girl), and Cousin Sarah (Erica's daughter).

I won't say her age BUT forty is beginning to sound younger and younger to her each year ;)


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Dear Ole Dad

Hey ya'll. I haven't been on the blog in a while. I kept waiting for some good news to share but my Dad ended up in the hospital again but he's back at the healthcare facility now. Poor guy.

I took some photos when I was in Litlle Rock a couple weeks ago. These were taken in the Arkansas Heart Hospital.


Me and my dad. The man that taught me to ride a bicycle. The man that I believed was the biggest and strongest in the world when I was little and that he had the most important job in the world too. And ya know, he's still all that and more :)